Forests

The Food & Agriculture Organisation, a UN body, estimates that although the world as a whole continues to lose forests, the annual rate of deforestation over the past decade was about half that between 1990 and 2000. Some large countries, including China and India, increased their forest cover between 2000 and 2010. China's increased at an average annual rate of 1.6%, while India's went up by 0.5% a year. Norway and Sweden have added forests over the past decade. With nearly 70% of its area forested in 2010, Sweden is one of the world's most sylvan countries. Nigeria, by contrast, has been chopping its forests down at a rate of 3.7% a year. By last year only one-tenth of its land remained forested.